What To Think About To Be Successful At Baseball Pitching

You've probably had a coach or parent harp on the fact that the mental side of pitching is just as important, if not more so, than the physical side. But what do they mean? What can you to do develop the mental toughness they're talking about?

Here are some ideas to think about to develop the mental capacity to perform well on game day. The list is not conclusive by all means. What would you add to it? What do you do the mentally prepare for performance?

1. I am not intimidated by any hitter.

2. I am determined to dominate this hitter, this game.

3. I will throw each pitch to the very best of my ability.

4. I am going to keep the batter off guard by throwing him what he least expects.

5. The batter doesn’t have a chance to drive the ball off me.

6. If a batter beats me once, he will not get the same chance again.

7. I will learn from my mistakes and not make the same mistake twice.

8. I will get the batter to swing at bad pitches by staying confident and consistent.

9. I am going to use my best pitch TODAY for my strike pitch.

10. I will pitch to the umpire’s strike zone.

11. I will study, watch and talk with other pitchers.

12. If I am not playing in the game, I will chart and study the hitters.

13. I will accept criticism as a positive aspect, as a way of improving my overall game.

14. I will trust my catcher and work with him to get each batter.

15. I will block out the crowd and focus all my attention on pitching and playing the game.

16. I will be up for every team and not take any team lightly.

17. I will do what is best for my team and lead by example.

Are Pitchers From The South More Aggressive Than Pitchers From The North?

Social psychologists who want to learn more about aggression may want to head to their local baseball diamonds this summer.

According to a study in the May Journal of Applied Psychology (Vol. 92, No. 3), Major League Baseball (MLB) pitchers hit batters more often in situations that allow them to restore justice—in retaliation for a teammate being hit, for example. That may not be surprising to baseball fans, but a deeper analysis of these hit-by-pitch events, alongside personal characteristics of the pitcher and batter, such as race and birthplace, reveal trends that may make these events even easier to predict, says the study's author, Thomas A. Timmerman, PhD, associate professor of business management at Tennessee Technological University.

A better understanding of pitchers' motivations may help the league reduce hit-by-pitch events, which numbered more than 1,800 in 2006, he says.

Timmerman looked at MLB data on the 27,667 hit-by-pitch events that took place from 1960 to 2004. He found that pitchers were most likely to hit batters when the batter had hit a home run during their last at-bat, when the previous batter had hit a home run and when a pitch in the previous half-inning hit the pitcher's teammate.

Yet, at the regional level,Timmerman also found that, in all three of these situations, white pitchers born in states typically defined as Southern by the U.S. Census were 40 percent more likely to hit a batter than non-Southerners. This trend may be due to a Southern inclination to act aggressively when their honor is challenged, he says. Timmerman recommends that the league penalize any pitcher who hits a batter—intentionally or not.

Most importantly, says Timmerman, the study may help psychologists understand the intricacies of aggression theories.

"You have to look at the situation, the aggressor and the target, all at the same time, or else you'll find nothing," he says. "It really shows the complexity of studying aggression."